Informed Sources

Friday, February 8, 2013

Psychedelic Sensations

In
1964 the Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, unable to adequately
define pornography, simply noted, “I know it when I see it.”

I
was reminded of that remark when I recently listened to the
psychedelic strains of The Fraternal Order of The All. Obscure? You
bet!

In
1998, when my heavy metal band Third Stone Invasion signed with
J-Bird Records, we joined a small roster of talent that included
Billy Squier, The Who’s John Entwistle, and singer-songwriter
Andrew Gold, who passed away in 2011. We were likely all drawn to
J-Bird due to the label’s cutting-edge plans to use the Internet to
market its music. Unfortunately, the label was a little too cutting
edge. Though many of the approaches they implemented have come to
be common in the current music world, it was a case of “too soon”
in the late 1990s. J-Bird eventually shut down, and all of our
releases were delegated to the status of obscurities. Or, as I prefer to think,
collector’s items...

Andrew Gold later in life and his deep-psychedelic release from J-Bird Records.

When
I travelled to J-Bird’s headquarters to sign our contract, I was
given a few of the label’s releases, including one by The Fraternal
Order of The All called Greetings
from Planet Love.
I soon discovered that this “band” was in fact Andrew Gold,
releasing an album recorded all by himself with the exception of an
assist or two from his pal Graham Gouldman of the band 10cc.

Greetings
from Planet Love
can perhaps best be described as a homage to the music of the late
1960s, with spot-on evocations of the Beach Boys, The Beatles, The
Doors, The Byrds, and more. What’s shared is that all of the songs
on this album immediately infuse the aural air with the unmistakable
scent of psychedelia. It’s a musical genre that is instantly
recognizable, perhaps more so than any other. But much like Tears for
Fears’ equally trippy “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” it’s hard
to put your finger on exactly what makes this stuff sound so
psychedelic. It just does.

In
other words: what is psychedelic music? Well, I know it when I hear
it. Thanks, Justice Stewart.

Follow
this link for a heady taste of this fun, obscure release by the late
Andrew Gold:

1 comment:

Simon
said...

I have this CD, it's great and it's a shame that he didn't do more. If you haven't heard them already though, you ought to check out the two XTC 'Dukes of Stratosphear' albums they really are the last word on this sort of thing - the first, '25 O'Clock' is particularly psychedelic.

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